Creek

Apr 16 2012

Great year for steelhead

Feynner says this may be the most adult steelhead trout he has seen in the creek in all his 24 years of living at Big Creek Reserve.

We started seeing large adults around mid March with lots of evidence of redd-digging activity in the gravel areas. The week of March 26th we saw 10 steelhead on the same day. I can honestly say that we are now seeing at least one every day and often we see a male, female pair. The size range seems to be between 20 and 30 inches, maybe more. The females are showing signs of being very active, with the skin worn away from their tails and caudal peduncles.

It is really exciting to consistently be seeing spawning steelhead. On an average year, we might see half a dozen in a month. 2009 and 2010 were remarkable by how few fish we did see. So this year feels like a boom.

MDR

Oct 21 2011

Big Creek – Below the Surface

Here is a video I put together a while back showing what Big Creek looks like under the surface of its waters. It is in standard definition but until I get a high def version going, this will have to do. I snorkeled down the creek with a video camera and then added footage of a scuba dive I did out in the cove and kelp forest. I hope you enjoy it.

Big Creek-Beneath The Surface

Apr 07 2011

Wet March for Big Creek – floods and landslides

March was a big rain month. Highlands Peak weather station measured 12.27 inches. Most of it fell over a block of time when it rained 14 out of 16 days.

The creek got very high. Probably about 6 feet on the staff gauge, although the gauge broke off at some point and so we can only estimate it until the fisheries scientists download their electronic instrument.

Local resident, Steve Harper, asked me if he could check out the flood and took some video of the rushing water heading out to the ocean. You can see his video here.

After the flood was over, we discovered that we now have a beach.

This doesn’t happen often. Usually we have a very rocky, boulder beach with a little sand at the north end. Perhaps there was a large slide up the canyon somewhere in the watershed. The sediment would have been delivered to the cove and pushed back onto the beach by the ocean waves. So there you have it, suddenly a beach appeared. The harbor seals love it!

Along with rain and mud, you get slides. The highway between Rocky Creek and Bixby Creek fell into the ocean. There was another road-closing slide south of Limekiln State Park which cut Big Creek off in both directions. Feynner had his work delivered onto our own road in a huge pile of mud and trees. This slide was about 40 feet tall and 30 feet wide. It took three days to fix the road but you can see he still had a smile on his face.

Feb 01 2010

Pelicans are spending time in the creek. Are they feeding on trout?

This morning (day 7 of pelican presence) there were 8 dead pelicans on the beach and ~130 congregated around the beach and the creek. Some seemed to be feeding in the creek, some drinking. Others were huddled on the sand with their wings drooping and feathers looking damp. One bird looked like it was literally going to collapse on its feet. One bird just walked up past the house into the garden. This happened two evenings ago; a pelican walked behind the house, investigated the chicken coop (this upset the chickens terribly) then went to sleep behind the house. To avoid potential fox predation, I put it in a box in the basement for the night with some water and a half-dozen sardines I had in the freezer. In the morning it had eaten the fish and I let it go. It seemed relatively fine and made its way back to the beach.

I have contacted several bird rescue and research people about these birds here but no answer yet.

I was watching some pelicans drinking in the lower pool in the creek this morning. When they drink, they put their heads into the water sideways and do a short bite. Some of them were swimming, holding their position against the current and doing short dives into the water. In this case, they were putting their heads in straight and their throat pouches were expanding downward, like they were feeding on the trout in the pool. There were also birds landing somewhere upstream, up the canyon, that were floating downstream and stopping on rocks along the way. I got word that pelicans are doing the same at Willow Creek and Mill Creek. Are they not getting anything to eat in the ocean? Have they switched to feeding on trout in the creeks?

Mar 29 2009

Cormorant seen swimming down Big Creek

Today on the way up the canyon road, Feynner and I saw a double crested cormorant floating and diving downstream about a quarter mile up from the gatehouse. It was drifting down a rapid into a big pool where an adult steelhead was sitting at the time. We saw a different fish dart out of the way while the cormorant dove underwater and swam downstream around the corner. This is the first time I’ve seen a cormorant in the creek, or any creek for that matter. Normally we see mergansers. It was so interesting to see this marine organism going quite far into the watershed to feed. More evidence that we need to understand more about the connectivity between the marine and terrestrial environments and how it is manifested through the watershed.

Feynner saw another or the same cormorant doing the same behavior on Saturday, March 21st. The morning of the 25th I saw another cormorant flying north along the highway head up into Big Creek canyon.

I saw another (the same?) cormorant swimming down Big Creek on the afternoon of March 29th. Even down the same pool and section of the main stem of Big Creek. Maybe this bird has got a unique feeding strategy all figured out!